Data communication systems exchange user data for user devices to provide various data communication services. The user devices may be phones, computers, media players, intelligent machines, and the like. The data communication services might be media streaming, video conferencing, machine-to-machine data transfers, internet access, or some other data communication service.
Data communication systems use wireless access nodes to extend the range of their communication services and enable user service mobility. The wireless access nodes perform wireless networking tasks like device handovers, radio interference management, and multipoint coordination. In Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, the wireless access nodes are evolved Node Bs (eNodeBs).
To extend this wireless data service footprint even more, wireless data repeaters are used in between the wireless access nodes and the user devices. A wireless repeater receives a wireless signal from a user device and then amplifies, filters, and retransmits the signal for receipt by the wireless access node or another wireless repeater. Likewise, a wireless repeater receives a wireless signal from the wireless access node. The wireless repeater amplifies, filters, and retransmits the signal for receipt by the user device or another wireless repeater. Chains or sequences of wireless repeaters are often used to cover roadways and trails with wireless data communication service.
Data communication networks offer various Quality-of-Service (QoS) levels. A prime QoS level is Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) where the data network monitors and enforces latency limitations by allocating more resources as needed to maintain the GBR. Non-GBR is a best effort QoS without the strict latency protections of GBR. Non-GBR is generally cheaper than GBR and is often just fine for many data applications. In LTE systems, QoS Class Indicators are used to specify various QoS levels. QCIs 1-4 are GBR QCIs, and QCI 5-9 comprise non-GBR QCIs.
The vastly extended range provided by the wireless repeaters is somewhat offset by the additional latency or delay that in caused by each repeater in a wireless link. In a long chain of repeaters, a user device may experience excessive latency on their non-GBR connections. For example, a non-GBR QCI 9 bearer through a long wireless repeater chain may become too slow for the user.